This Man Has Kept An Unopened Christmas Present From His Ex-Girlfriend For Nearly 50 Years

Lots of people are guilty of hanging on to mementos from previous relationships.

For years, I held onto movie tickets from my first date with an ex. (To be fair, I actually forgot I had them after a while.) Some people even keep old weddings rings, though I’m not sure why you wouldn’t just pawn that shit. But Adrian Pearce of Edmonton is taking sentimentality to the next level.

Pearce, 64, has preserved a Christmas present from his ex-girlfriend for the last 47 years—and he still hasn’t opened it. He told the Canadian Press his ex, Vicki, dumped him when he was 17 years old, but gave him the present the same day, a parting gift of sorts.

"I had a long walk home and I was all upset and angry, and all the things you feel when somebody breaks up with you," Pearce said, noting Vicki was his first serious girlfriend.

"And so I fired the present under the Christmas tree. After my family opened their gifts at Christmas, there was still one Christmas gift left and it's the gift this girl Vicki had given me. I told my family I'm never going to open that present."

Fast forward nearly half a century and Pearce has stuck true to his word—he has not unwrapped Vicki’s gift. Over the years, Pearce reconnected with Vicki a couple times but, as if often the case, the sparks weren’t there anymore. Nonetheless, Pearce stuck to his tradition of trotting out her present every Christmas and not opening it. Eventually, he said, it made his wife mad. She told him to stop putting it under the Christmas tree.

These days, he said he just privately stares at the gift every year before putting it away again. (Perhaps not the solution his wife was hoping for, though he claims she enjoys the mystery of it all too.)

But Peace said this year he actually tried looking Vicki up again, only none of the numbers he tried ended up working out.

For now, he said he enjoys “looking at it and having the pleasure of not opening it.” But he may open it on the 50th anniversary of receiving it and host a “contest” asking people to guess its contents, with the proceeds going to charity. He’s also kind of hoping he can track down Vicki by then so she can “share in the celebration.” We wouldn’t hold our breath.

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